Word: debrett
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Most of the presents received in the past by royalty were never used," remarks H.B. Brooks-Baker of Debrett's Peerage Ltd., publishers of Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. "Contrary to popular belief, the Prince doesn't really have anything at all beyond museum pieces, such as signed pieces of furniture and valuable paintings. He doesn't have breakfast china or a toaster...
...spite of the advice given in Debrett's Etiquette and Modern Manners [July 6], the technique for the proper way to eat a pea can be found in these lines remembered from grammar school days...
...Debrett is too squeamish to say much about sex, and the little counsel that is offered tends to be erratic. Men should rise for a woman after work, but not at an office meeting. A hostess can, in good conscience, allow an unmarried couple to share a bedroom (a stunning advance from the Victorian days when etiquette guides recommended that even books by unmarried male and female writers be kept on separate shelves). At large parties, however, coats should be sexually segregated-women's in the bedroom, men's in the hall...
...etiquette book is one sign of staid old Debrett's new friskiness since H.B. Brooks-Baker, 47, an American who married a European aristocrat, took it over in 1976. He pushed the company into the black by reaching out to the British middle class and the American market, publishing books satirizing the rich and cashing in on the Roots fad by offering to trace family trees for Yanks...
...Debrett's Etiquette is directly aimed at the anxious middle class in America as well as Britain. Edited by Tennessee-born Elsie Burch Donald, 42, who now lives in England, it will be published in America next month by Viking Press ($25). Says Brooks-Baker: "The last thing the upper classes really care about is whether something goes wrong at a dinner party, but the middle class is very concerned about things like that. We are giving them what they have asked...